The Permission to Evolve

Embracing Change and Personal Growth — Sunday Shorelines Podcast 

In this episode, Lori explores the sacred space of Sunday as a metaphor for transition and growth. She encourages listeners to embrace their evolution, recognizing that outgrowing old patterns is a sign of alignment, not failure, and offers guidance on navigating the discomfort that change brings.

Key Topics:

• The significance of Sundays as a moment of pause and reflection

• The shoreline analogy: growth as natural as the tide's movement

• The world’s comfort with who you were vs who you're becoming

• Recognizing the cost of staying the same versus evolving

• Personal stories of career growth in sales, marketing, and leadership

• The difference between loyalty and self-abandonment

• How to handle guilt and societal expectations during periods of change

• Practical steps to move forward boldly and authentically

• The importance of self-care and self-acceptance during transformation

Timestamps: 

00:00 - Welcome to Sunday Shorelines: embracing the sacred pause 

01:33 - Arriving at the shoreline: unclenching and being present 

02:26 - The world’s comfort with your past self versus your future self 

03:09 - Growth as an invitation, not a disruption 

04:23 - Outgrowing without guilt: it’s redistribution, not rejection

05:18 - The tide’s movement as a metaphor for natural change 

06:36 - Personal career journey in marketing and leadership 

08:27 - Loyalty versus self-abandonment: recognizing the difference 

09:10 - The high cost of staying stagnant 

09:56 - The desire for more: embracing ambition despite societal judgment 

10:18 - Moving beyond the shoreline: navigating guilt and permission 

11:06 - The water’s steady movement: a reminder to evolve at your own pace 

11:35 - Preparing for the next steps in personal growth 

12:02 - Passing on the message: sharing the courage to evolve 

12:47 - Affirmations: you are enough today and always capable of growth 

13:08 - Looking forward to deeper dives: Wednesday’s live session

Resources & Links:

• Book: Rising Strong by Brené Brown

• Lori Kendall - LinkedIn

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the Real and Rooted Podcast, where real stories mean grounded healing. I'm Laurie Kendall, founder of Reflective Roots, where I work as a grief navigator, a companion for the tough times in life, author of Missing Pieces, the Final Salute, and your host. Each week we'll explore the experiences, the losses, the breakthroughs, and the honest conversations that transform who we are becoming. This is a space to reconnect with yourself, reclaim the pieces that you've lost along the way, and grow in ways you never thought were possible or expected. Let's get rooted and begin. I'm your host, Lori, and I am so glad that you decided to join us here this evening. You know, there's something sacred about Sundays. Not because everything is figured out, but because we're standing in between what was and what's about to be. So wherever you are right now, I want you to arrive, unclench your jaw, drop your shoulders, don't worry about Monday. It isn't here yet, and take a breath that you didn't realize you needed, or maybe you're holding it in. If you can, close your eyes for a moment and picture this. You're standing at the shoreline. The water is moving, steady, rhythmic, unapologetic. It comes in, it pulls back out, and every single time it leaves the shore a little different. That's where you are right now. At the edge of something that's shifting. Let's be honest about something that we don't say out loud enough. The world is far more comfortable with who you were than who you're becoming. People build relationships with a version of you. They get used to your patterns, your roles, your yeses, your silence. And when you start to change, it disrupts things. Not because you're doing something wrong, but because growth asks them to adjust too. So instead, what do we hear? You've changed. You're not the same. Why can't things just stay how they were? Or a classic that I've heard. Is this your medication making you act like this? And if you're not careful, you start to wonder if evolving is something to feel guilty about. But I want to ask you something. Really ask you. Is it the exhaustion of showing up in spaces that no longer fit? Is it the quiet resentment that creeps in when you keep saying yes to things your spirit has outgrown? Is it the awareness that you've been shrinking just to keep things smooth? Here's the truth that uh most people don't say. Outgrowing something doesn't mean it's wrong. It just means it no longer fits right with the person that you're becoming. And that's a hard thing to hold on to because you can love something and still leave it. You can appreciate a version of your life and still know it's time to evolve beyond it. Now let's go back to the shoreline. The tide doesn't apologize for moving. It doesn't stay to make the sand feel more comfortable. It shifts, reshapes, it transforms. And because of that, life exists. What if your evolution isn't disruption but design? What if the discomfort you feel is actually alignment trying to happen? What if the tension it's telling you to stop but inviting you to move? We've been caught between what was and what is for so long. And I equate this to the fact that we've been taught to relate consistency with worth. But there's a difference between being grounded and being stuck. In most cases, in some days, and maybe some people are still like this, individuals have stayed at a position or a job or a career for a multitude of years. And they see the individuals that constantly keep changing careers, positions, companies, and if it's anything like my case, individuals that our family continuously made fun of me. Yet little did they know marketing, sales, and oftentimes career paths changed, and that's okay. I always made more money in the next position. I kept building my career and gaining more experience, developed leadership that I didn't have before, and took the opportunity to expand my knowledge. All of it related somehow, some way to the betterment of myself. I look at it now, and every job, every career that I had, the majority of them were sales and marketing, taught me something. Newspaper sales taught me networking, developed my relationships, marketing in higher education, taught me branding. When I was working in Minor League Baseball, and I grew from intern to the assistant general manager, it taught me what I was made of. It taught me how to dig deep, how to defy the odds and push against the norms. It taught me long hours and endless nights. It taught me what I would accept and what I wouldn't. Let's talk about the cost, because staying the same has a cost too. It looks like dimming your voice in rooms where you used to feel powerful, carrying responsibilities that no longer belong to you, staying in roles that feel more like an obligation than a purpose. Ignoring the quiet voice inside of you that keeps saying there's more. Growth will cost you, but so will staying. The question isn't whether it will feel uncomfortable, because it will be. How to navigate the guilt, how to handle the conversations, how to release the need for permission, and how to stand fully in who you are becoming, even when it's unfamiliar to the people around you. For now, I don't need you to have answers. I just need you to be honest. Honest about what you feel, honest about what's shifting, honest about what you can no longer ignore. Go back to the shoreline one more time. Watch the water. Notice how it doesn't force anything, but it never stops moving. That's your reminder. You don't have to rush, but you also don't have to stay. You're allowed to evolve, you're allowed to outgrow, and you are allowed to move. And on Wednesday, we'll take the next steps together. Again, thank you for joining me tonight on this Sunday shoreline. If this episode resonated with you, if you need to pass it on to someone who may be feeling stuck, maybe has the desire to evolve but doesn't know how. I'm not saying I have all the answers, but I'm saying it's time for me to move. Move with each step forward, move with growth, with being okay to cry, being okay to smile and laugh, being okay to put those individuals who have hurt me or don't understand behind me. Because at the end of the day, I need to take care of me. You need to take care of you. So don't be afraid to say, I am enough today, I'll be enough tomorrow, and I am enough to grow past you. Thank you again for joining us for this Sunday Shoreline. I am so glad you're here and you join us. I look forward to seeing you again here on Wednesday dive in. Have a great day. In Missing Pieces, the Final Salute, a mother's journey through service, sorrow, and survival. You'll walk through my story of preparing for the service of grief, of resilience, and rediscovery. And along the way, I hope you find space for your own story. This book isn't about being perfect. It's about becoming whole again even when some pieces feel forever changed. Order your copy of Missing Pieces today on Amazon or at MissingPiecesbook.com. Join other readers who are finding their own story, encapsulated within the pages. Gain insights and learn more at Real and Rooted Podcast, where real stories take root and healing grows. MissingPeace is the final salute, a mother's journey through service, sorrow, and survival. A story of love, loss, and becoming whole again.